Great American Beer Festival Medal Winners From 1987

While the inaugural Great American Beer Festival was held in 1982 (with 22 participating breweries), the international competition that doles out gold, silver and bronze medals in several beer styles wasn’t started until five years later. In honor of this year’s fest, which takes place from October 11–13 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, BeerInfo.com has posted the winners from 1987's contest.

The craft beer industry was much smaller then, and winners were named in just a dozen categories, as opposed to this year’s 135 different styles in 84 categories. Pioneer Sierra Nevada walked away with the gold in the broad category of “Ales” for its Bigfoot Barley Wine, while Genesee Brewing took top place in “American Lagers.”

A broad category called “Alts” placed Alaskan Brewing Chinook Alaskan Amber at number one, and Chesapeake Bay Brewing Chesbay Double Bock won for “Bock/Dopplebocks.” Click over to check out the list — quite a few of these beers are still popular today. We’ll keep tabs on the 2012 competition and post winners here next week.

H/T Matt Van Wyk